Anyone here still does low carb or zero carb?

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hotborsh

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Heya guys, is there anyone here who still does low carb or zero carb diet?

The reason i'm asking is because i'm getting interested with it, but not sure if I should try it. I'm training bjj and do a bit of a strength work and yesterday after i had lunch (a big plate of pasta and meatballs) I felt myself so tired and sleepy that i was almost falling asleep after it for 2-3 hours.

I don't have any problems with sleeping at night (sleep 8-9 hours). Lately i noticed that sometimes after lunch i get really tired and sleepy and usually my lunch is meat + carbs(pasta,rice,potatoes..). I get this feeling if I eat pasty for breakfast as well. That got me thinking of giving a low carb/zero carb type diet a try. But i'm not sure if it's an optimal way of eating for someone who does intensive type sports? Anyone tryed it while doing any kind of martial arts?

I tryed googling it, but most of the time the low carb related threads are about losing weight, but that isn't my goal.

P.S. sorry for my bad english.
 
Your current diet sounds like shit, eat some veggies and fruits ? you will not be as tired. You train a lot ? go eat some nuts.

As far as no carb try it and find out, you may feel off for a while.

Iv done it even hit ketosis id guess by how my strength went up sleep got good and was just feeling good over all damn good. But it was a bitch and a half eating like that and your life becomes all about the no carb.
 
It's not like i don't eat veggies and fruits. I do. I usually snack on fruits and eat a salad with some meat in the evening.

Yeah i agree about the pastry part, it's complete shit. But sometimes i'm too lazy in the morning to eat at home so i just buy some pastry near my office. But I wouldn't call pasta or rice shit. Why is it?

The part that is stopping me the most to try a keto diet is that i need to completely change the foods that I eat (i don't live alone) and that in the threads that i found on keto + mma/bjj in google everyone advises against it, cause "YOU NEED CARBS", but without any real explanation.
 
I do. Man it kind of sucks and I feel a lot better eating some carbs... but getting/staying lean is my goal so I do it. I've personally found it's pretty hard to put ON weight while on keto. If you want to maintain, recomp, or lose, it works well.

I box, swim, run, dabble in the kickfighting etc...

Check out
http://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains

and this subreddit is more focused on weight loss, but a lot of good info in the FAQ and such
http://www.reddit.com/r/keto
 
I personally don't eat super low carb. There was a movie recently made about super low carb eating or elite athletes following a diet that burns fat for fuel. The movies trailer can be seen at:

"New Documentary About Incredible Physical Performance on LCHF
 
I am planning to reduce carb intake to about 100g per day to allow for more BROtein.

We shall see how it turns out.
 
Currently low carb, kicked myself out of ketosis intentionally.
I have had nothing but solid results on both. The first 2-3 weeks are the hardest and where most fail. If you can stick through that, the rest is super easy. You will likely become caffeine sensitive also so go easy on it.
Do not over consume protein or you may re-stimulate gluconeogensis when you don't want to.

As for the "need" carbs debate....you don't "need them", your body can make what it needs via gluconeogensis from fatty acids and proteins. If you keep your insulinogenic carbs under 50g you can hit ketosis though it will come quicker if under 30g. There is a lot of evidence emerging suggesting high fat low carb is better for endurance performance, though nothing has stated it is better for power based, but, it hasn't really turned out to be worse. With new studies in that field, it may turn out neutral in that department.
In theory, it should be neutral. Much power is not simply developed via hypertrophy, but by neural recruitment and rate coding, of which, a ketogenic diet is neurologically very stimulating. This should get you started in some individual research.

The need for carbs as a strength or power based does have some merit in the anaerobic world, however, your body will never truly be depleted of glycogen; just less on a ketogenic diet. So you can still do power lifting and mma etc. Sinister has a number of his boxers on low carb or keto and they do quite well with no impaired function of energy systems during training or competition.

My lifts have gone up, as did my endurance when i switched to keto. More surprisingly, was my ability to recover between rounds. If you decide to try it, give it 10 weeks of strict following and see how you feel after that. If it isn't for you, then sally forth with another dietary measure.
 
Badger67 said:
Sinister has a number of his boxers on low carb or keto and they do quite well with no impaired function of energy systems during training or competition.
Click to expand...

I would argue this point. Energy isn't as good in training when on a strict keto cut. For competition we'll have carbs, so it's a moot point.
 
The reason i'm interested in it is because of the constant energy levels people talk about when they're on keto. I just noticed that i have a sort of a "crash" everytime after lunch and i'm trying to figure out what causes it. I mean i understand why you should feel a bit tired or relaxed after having a good sized meal, but yesterday it felt like i was KO'ed :D. There are just 2 things that hold me back from trying it:
1. I have to change my eating habits and it would be hard because i live with GF that is used to eating a lot of carb stuff.
2. I'm not sure how it will affect my bjj training.

But i think i might give it a try.. Maybe i will try to lower overall carb intake, somewhere to 20% of daily calories.

And yeah, most of the stuff about keto that i read is oriented on weight/fat loss.
 
hotborsh said:
The reason i'm interested in it is because of the constant energy levels people talk about when they're on keto. I just noticed that i have a sort of a "crash" everytime after lunch and i'm trying to figure out what causes it. I mean i understand why you should feel a bit tired or relaxed after having a good sized meal, but yesterday it felt like i was KO'ed :D. There are just 2 things that hold me back from trying it:
1. I have to change my eating habits and it would be hard because i live with GF that is used to eating a lot of carb stuff.
2. I'm not sure how it will affect my bjj training.

But i think i might give it a try.. Maybe i will try to lower overall carb intake, somewhere to 20% of daily calories.

And yeah, most of the stuff about keto that i read is oriented on weight/fat loss.
Click to expand...

The lunch crash is a super well-documented problem (in the 50-60s they called it afternoon diabetes). The solution? Eat less for lunch, and eat lighter foods with a less acute metabolic impact (fruits, legumes, dairy). Save your calories for the beginning or end of the day. Fixing this issue doesn't require a complete overhaul of your diet.

If you don't care about weight loss, then don't even bother with keto/low-carb. It isn't a performance oriented diet.
 
I've read about this crazy sustained energy you get from being keto adapted, but I've never experienced that. A lot of people say they have though, so maybe it's just me. I'm on some kind of low carb all year but whenever I've gone strict keto, the goal is to lose weight or be less fat. I think any time you attempt to get burn fat, you will inevitably feel like shit and performance will suffer a bit in the gym. I've been told staying off carbs will give you better performance when you do get on them before competition.

I can tell you that you don't get those carb induced comas. I used to get those often, but now when I eat a my seldom big carby meal, I feel fine so that seems to suggest I have better insulin sensitivity... whatever that means.
 
I was successful at about 12 weeks of slow carb - via tim ferris' 4hr body. after i ate carbs again i put weight back on. Im back on the diet now, and for shits and giggles throwing in 1 day a week 24 hr fasting.

found the fasting on the forum here, good amount of people say its great.
 
Currently on somwhat low carb, trying to lose some chub. I avoid carbs until dinner, where I'll have one serving of rice or pasta. The thing with energy 'crashing' after a carb meal is what I expirienced too while eating in a surplus. The way I have it now, energy really is consistent, and I still have some reward in the evening by not depleting myself entirely.
 
I go low carb (plus calorie deficit, plus training) when i need to drop weight for competition.
I do it 1 month before competition and just for 2 weeks. With this i have an extra week if i need to make adjustments.
This is only because it helps shed some extra water weight, many carbohydrate dense foods are also hypercaloric and because i have to drop like 20 lbs.


But energy-levels related, and avoiding Porkinson (Overeating illness where if you eat like a pork, you feel sleepy), i suggest intermitent fasting and/or spreading the amount of carbohydrates all over your meals (incluiding a pre-workout snack).
This way you distribute the very tasty and good energy from carbs all over your day instead of having a single huge spike that makes you a narcoleptic.
 
Cyclone Mike said:
I would argue this point. Energy isn't as good in training when on a strict keto cut. For competition we'll have carbs, so it's a moot point.
Click to expand...

"Train low, race high" seems to be a working folk theory in race training right now. There may be some short-term adaptations to a high fat diet and lots of base-building(also some theory that there may be a particular training effect from exercise taking you near or at glycogen depletion, and having a low carb diet allows you to reach that point more repeatedly).

Regardless, the second part of that is "race high". Best time trial performance is almost always in the presence of lots of carbohydrate.

As far as competing in weight-class events, I basically never go low carb until the week I'm cutting water weight. I want to make sure that prior to my water cut, as little weight loss as possible is due to water fluctation, so that the drop during the final week will be easier and I'm primarily losing fat.
 
selfcritical said:
As far as competing in weight-class events, I basically never go low carb until the week I'm cutting water weight. I want to make sure that prior to my water cut, as little weight loss as possible is due to water fluctation, so that the drop during the final week will be easier and I'm primarily losing fat.
Click to expand...

Agreed entirely.

Just to elaborate: I cut from a lean 174lbs to 149lbs. I don't have that much fat to lose, so that's why i go for the 3-4 week period of reduced carbs, to reduce water retention or i just cannot make weight in 1 week (or 3 days) without kind of dying.
 
hotborsh said:
I just noticed that i have a sort of a "crash" everytime after lunch and i'm trying to figure out what causes it. I mean i understand why you should feel a bit tired or relaxed after having a good sized meal, but yesterday it felt like i was KO'ed :D.
Click to expand...

Just wait till you go through the first 2 weeks of keto. You wont even have to worry about crashing because you'll be too dizzy and weak from 2 minutes of exercise to ever crash.
 
I did targeted keto for a while but couldn't sustain more than 2 sessions of mt a week on it. I'm sure people can but 4 or 5 a week for me? Forget it

My main advice to anyone would be to watch electrolyte and glycogen levels very carefully
 
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